Writing amongst the trees

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I can hardly believe my two weeks at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre are almost over. I've had such a good time here, and not in exactly the way I expected. I thought I'd write three or more stories during my residency. But I arrived with a story yet to be finished, and worked on that for a couple of days. Then I panicked for a couple of days, because I felt this intense pressure to choose a Good Idea for my next story and nothing seemed close to adequate (normally I would take the vaguest of concepts and just wing it). Eventually I calmed down and told myself to just play. So I tried something I've never tried - writing a story in second person. It was truly bad at first, so I worked on it, and now it's approaching fair. After that I began a new story which I'm having fun writing. And here I am on the Friday of the last week. So with two full writing days to go, I've edited one story, written a full story in second person, and am perhaps halfway through a new tragi-comedy sort of piece. I wouldn't call that an enormous output yet. I say yet because I have no doubt that my experiences here will lead to more stories, perhaps as many again as I have written so far. I have walked at sunset, shopped in an Indian grocery store, met many creative people, attended writing groups and had dinner with a lovely writer friend I hadn't yet been able to meet in person. I've had meals and discussions and lots of laughter with the other two Fellows here. I've read every night before bed. I've had time to become immersed in writing. It became a bit of a catchcry between myself and my next-door neighbour Fellow Mark J Keenan (who is going through the re-drafting process with his novel) - It's not about the word count, it's about the whole writing experience. Thinking, planning, dreaming, talking and writing amongst the trees.